How do you use your amp live?

[coop21]

It seems like most players I watch play live almost never adjust the settings on their amp after a sound check. If they use multi-channel amps they sometimes switch channels but most just use pedals to change the tone.

Now I can understand that if you are playing all originals and you have dialed in your tone, then maybe that's fine. I have found that there are so many good tones that I want to tweak it between songs.

For those with three and four channel amps, do you use them all? Do you ever change modes?

 

[Red Barchetta]

I leave the settings on my Road King as is after soundcheck. I rarely if ever tweak the tone after it's set. If the band is getting raucious, and the volume goes up, I may adjust the master and solo knobs, but that's it.

I don't change the modes either. I have Ch 1 set to clean, 2 6L6's, Ch 2 set to Brit, 2 EL34's, Ch 3 set to vintage, 2 6L6's, and Ch 4 set to Modern, 4 6L6's & 2 EL34's.

I have found that these 4 sounds give me my fundamental tones...each set for a different level of drive/chunk. I don't use any overdrive pedals, just chorus,flange, phase, and delay (see my effects post in the Effects section).

Channel 2 and 3 get most of the work, closely followed by Channel 1 along with Channel 4 bringing up the rear.

I find that using the 4 channels, along with the solo function and a volume pedal gives me all I need.


That's it.

RB

 

[Elpelotero]

i would imagine that after sound check the engineer wouldn't be happy if you all of a sudden upped the bass knob 1/4 turn, or something similar.

 

[Brewski]

Even if you don't have a sound engineer, you need to keep things rolling in a live situation. So you need to be ready to go to the next song in a live situation. Even if your frontman is interacting with the audience between numbers, if you move the knobs you can't be sure what sort of volume you're going to get, especially when you're dialing in gain and treble. It's better to get your base tones and work with your pedals or your guitar pickups. You have the luxury of more time to adjust tone when you're in the studio or when you're practicing, if you want to experiment. (depending on how long ya take and how patient your bandmates are) :roll:

 

[NoGlassNoClass]

I seldom if ever make any adjustments after soundcheck. Set my three basic tones (Ch1 nice chimey clean, Ch2-vintage smooth solo tone, Ch3-modern rip-yer-face-off). How thoughtful is was for Mr Smith & co to put the boost and fx loop buttons next to eachother on the footswitch so you can stomp both of them at the same time! A bit of delay/reverb, and a slight vol boost and there ya have it for soloing.

 

[SteveP]

Originals here man. Im no help

 

[JoeVFR]

I too try to set it up and leave it alone except for volume. I have to compromise on the bass setting because I switch between a Les Paul and a Strat. At home, the spread is larger because I listen more critically but live, I am probably the only one who notices. I do use both channels on an LSC 2x12. Channel one (100 watts) clean, chan. 2 (50 watts) dirty. I also use a Keey compressor and TS-9 depending on the amount of gain I need. We mic every show, so I don't have to open up the amp all the way. I still love the tone with master @ 12, solo @ 1 and the individual channels set to match each other.

 

[ned]

Gotta keep the set moving so there is no time between songs to tweak settings. If the channel balance is off I will quickly adjust to fix that but otherwise it's just rip.

I use both channels and 3 dirt boxes, if I had 4 channels I would use them all minus the dirt boxes.

 

[rippingrudy]

I set the tone up at soundcheck and do not change it. The only thing I will change is the amp modes (Vintage to Modern for example). I then use the volume/tone/pick up selector on my guitar along with pedals to get different sounds.

In a live situation you want a good base sound that is thick and rich with just enough cut in the mids. If you start screwing around with the settings you are stuck with them for 3 minutes until you hit the next song. Plus, your sound guy might hear the change and re-eq you in front because he doesn't know you are changing on the fly.

 

[hal9000]

I run my F-100 like this:

With my G-Major the F-series is essentially a three-channel amp (clean, solo, and rhythm). Also, the different combinations of the pickups in my Strat and Ravelle give me all the sounds I need. My band does play originals, BTW. One of the sounds I really like from this setup is that my solo tone over clean material is based on my Strat's neck single coil pickup. Since the sc pup has a lot lower output than a hb it reduces the gain on the solo channel, and the bass of the neck smoothes the tone making a perfect low gain lead sound even though I haven't technically changed the amp at all.

This is my setup:

 

[Red Barchetta]

Hal...those are fantastic graphics!!! What program did you use to make them, and where can I get it?



RB

 

[hal9000]

Hal...those are fantastic graphics!!! What program did you use to make them, and where can I get it?



RB

Thanks! You can get PowerPoint just about anywhere I think.

Send me an email if you're interested in graphics: [email protected]

 

[tele_jas]

I use my RK combo live every weekend and I rarely mess with the tone knobs once I've set them at the gig, but at home I'll try to find a different/better tone but once at the gig I won't mess with it unless it is a bit too harsh. Other than that, I switch between the 4 channels and I also use a Tubescreamer (all knobs set about 1:30) for a bit more umph on the Brit channel, a bit of dirt on the clean channel, and a bit more umph on my channel I have set up for a mid distortion on ch 4. I never use the TS on channel 3, that is my heavy heavy channel set to vintage.

Usually the only real tweaking I do at a show is mess with the individual volumes to make them all the same, my solo volume to get the right amount of "jump" above the normal volume and my master volume sometimes goes up as the band gets louder (per the sound man only though).

Thats about it, my setup consist of:
* Road King combo and King Kontroller
* Peavey Wolfgang and various other G&L backup guitars (tele and strat style)
* Tubescreamer TS-10
* Bud wah
* Danelectro delay in loop 1
* Fender tuner pedal
* Behringer tremolo pedal
* Shure Wireless ('92 true diversity model, still works great)
* and most important......Cool 80s rock t-shirts!!

 

[tele_jas]

Hal...those are fantastic graphics!!! What program did you use to make them, and where can I get it?



RB

Thanks! You can get PowerPoint just about anywhere I think.

Send me an email if you're interested in graphics: [email protected]

Those are cool graphincs!! I've admired them here and on HCAF and I've been meaning to ask you how you make them or where you got the gear graphics to use? I use PS a little here and there and was looking all over the net to find gear pics like those. Do you take real pics and then render them using a certain plug-in to make them look "cartoon-ish" (for lack of better words)? Love the way they look.

 

[hal9000]

Hal...those are fantastic graphics!!! What program did you use to make them, and where can I get it?



RB

Thanks! You can get PowerPoint just about anywhere I think.

Send me an email if you're interested in graphics: [email protected]

Those are cool graphincs!! I've admired them here and on HCAF and I've been meaning to ask you how you make them or where you got the gear graphics to use? I use PS a little here and there and was looking all over the net to find gear pics like those. Do you take real pics and then render them using a certain plug-in to make them look "cartoon-ish" (for lack of better words)? Love the way they look.

Thanks for the compliments about my art. I have to say, unless someone ripped-off my work, I doubt you'll see much in my style. Anyway, I draw everything from scratch using photos or dimensions as a reference, and it's all in a vector format using PowerPoint or Illustrator. The rigs you've seen from me are all in PP simply because it has some nice features. If you want to do your own work, Illustrator is the way to go though. All my serious work for my customers is in Illustrator like CD art, logos and the like. There is no quick way to make a rig drawing like this though. In fact, it’s very much a CAD approach where each element it built up and rendered on its own and then combined into the final output schematic or what have you. By the word “render” I mean that I do all the shading, colors, and special finishes by hand.

Here's my buddy Tommi's Rig:

 

[screamingdaisy]

I change channel modes alot, depending on what I'm playing. But, I've learned where to turn the knobs so I get my sound quickly. That said, I never touch the bass knob, and I rarely move the treble.

I also ride a volume pedal for my gain, so that's always changing too.

 

[no soul]

I set up, adjust settings a little bit to compensate for the room, and then I rock!

A lot of times if Im playing one of my Les Pauls, I wont even bother dialing in my clean ch, because I usually just do the volume roll off/toggle trick on my guitar.

 

[Antti Loponen]

My rig is like this

PRS Santana SE / Gibson SG -> Line6 POD XT Live -> Mesa F-30

I use the drive channel of the F-30 with the contour engaged most of the time. I use an "underdrive" pedal on the XT Live or turn down with volume knob or pedal to get a lighter distortion for verses. Sometimes I use the clean channel, and I use non-contour channel for a couple of songs. The XT Live supplies me with some Delay and Phasing effects, but nothing dramatical. I prefer the effects before the amp.

I'd like the F-30 to have an overall volume control so I could keep the channel masters at a fixed position and adjust the overall volume with one knob depending on the venue. Now, if I need more or less volume, I lose the ratio between the channels too easily.

 

[mesaian]

Originals, 3 amps ...NEVER touch in performance, unless i had a delay pedal.......but alass, i do not

 

[G.I.G.]

I use my DR live but rarely change any settings during a gig. The only time I will make changes is if my musician friends in the crowd tell me between sets that it needs to be tweeked (too trebly, too much bass, etc.). I have my amp dialed in the way I like it, but it depends on the sound guy and the venue I'm playing at as to whether or not I tweek anything. Overall, very rarely do I change anything.

I use all 3 channels on my DR when I play live. I play in a cover band so I need a lot of versitility. I have the channels set like this:

channel 1 - "clean" mode - used for anything clean
channel 2 - "vintage" mode - used for more 80's or classic rock stuff (Metallica, Motley Crue, KISS, etc.)
channel 3 - "modern" mode - used for most of what my band plays (Nickleback, Creed, Disturbed, Godsmack, etc.)

I saw the diagrams of other people's rigs thrown up here so here is mine. Sorry for the large file. I just used the pictures of my guitars, stole a couple of pictures from the internet of the Recto's (I don't have pictures of mine), and put it together in Microsoft Picture It! photo application. I use my PRS and my USA Jackson Custom Shop live with my DR.